Arts & Ideas

In the last of Matthew Sweet's visits to ZSL London Zoo we consider our relations with our closest animal relatives - apes. Daniel Simmonds, Keeper at ZSL London Zoo's Gorilla Kingdom, discusses the problems that come with looking after creatures so similar to, but different from us. Is any kind of mutual understanding possible at all? Matthew picks up the theme with anatomist and anthropologist Alice Roberts, physician and philosopher Raymond Tallis and novelist James Lever. So what happens when you stare into the eyes of an ape?

Social media, as old as Cicero and as revolutionary as Christianity? Tom Standage and William Dutton join Philip Dodd to explore our networked world and to question whether social media alters historic mappings of power and authority. Photographer Dayanita Singh discusses her new retrospective at London’s Hayward gallery and her approach to the camera. As part of Verdi 200, Radio 3’s season celebrating the composer’s bicentenary, music historian Sarah Lenton and scholar René Weis explore Verdi’s passion for Shakespeare.

Catholic theologian Hans Küng in his new work asks 'Can We Save The Catholic Church?'. He discusses this and more with Anne McElvoy. Anna Raeburn and Adam Mars-Jones review the first episode of Masters of Sex and discuss the work of Masters and Johnson. In a theatre critique, Susannah Clapp comes straight from the Donmar Warehouse to the studio for a first night review of Arnold Wesker's 'Roots'. And the author Wendy Lower has written a new book 'Hitler's Furies - German women in the Nazi Killing Fields' and Anne asks her what she found there.

Jonathan Derbyshire, the Managing Editor of Prospect magazine, and Observer columnist Nick Cohen discuss the genealogy of left wing politics in Britain. The thinker and psychoanalyst Slavoj Zizek takes on the ideology machine of Hollywood in his new film, The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology. Directors Richard Eyre and Stephen Unwin discuss their two respective productions of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, which have both just opened. Melissa Benn asks what messages we are conveying to young women and what advice we should be giving our daughters to empower them for the future.

In Night Waves’ second outing to London Zoo, Matthew Sweet and guests discuss Angus Wilson's 1961 novel 'The Old Men at the Zoo'. Matthew is joined by Wilson's friend and biographer Margaret Drabble, by the poet and novelist Iain Sinclair, and by Jonathan Powell and Margot Hayhoe who brought the story to TV screens in the 1983 BBC series.

With Rana Mitter. Bestselling author of Wild Swans, Jung Chang discusses her new biography of the most important woman in Chinese history; Empress Dowager Cixi. Alastair Sooke survey's a new show by The critics' favourite Young British artist, Sarah Lucas. US historian Tim Stanley joins Rana to discuss former Chilean President Salvador Allende along with the author of a new book on the subject, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera. And our latest contribution to the Sound of Cinema season: Simon Fisher Turner discusses his new soundtrack to The Epic of Everest.

Samuel Huntington’s essay ‘The Clash of Civilisations?’ was published twenty years ago; Philip Dodd and guests Douglas Murray, Maria Misra and Gideon Rose discuss the importance and relevance of the essay today. Karen Leeder reviews a new exhibition of the work of George Grosz which focuses on his satirical depictions of bourgeois life in Weimar Berlin. Simon Heffer on his new book High Minds, which explores 1840s-1880s as a period which laid the foundations for modern Britain.

Actress Cate Blanchett joins Samira Ahmed to discuss her role in Woody Allen's latest film, Blue Jasmine. Renaissance scholar Alexander Lee, Sarah Dunant and Radio 3 New Generation Thinker John Gallagher reassess the Renaissance and consider whether our view of the period is seen through rose-tinted glasses. Maxim Leo on his new memoir, Red Love, and the compromises involved in living in the DDR. Art critic Joanne Harwood reviews Tate Modern's retrospective of the late Brazilian artist Mira Schendel.

Architect Zaha Hadid joins Rana Mitter to reflect on her designs for the Serpentine's new Sackler Gallery. Critics Ian Christie and Muriel Zagha discuss the sounds and music of French Cinema. Philosopher Julian Baggini and Classicist Richard Seaford consider the pros and cons of cynicism towards the public sphere.

Australian director Baz Luhrmann shot to fame in 1992 with Strictly Ballroom and was nominated in 2003 for seven Tony awards for his Broadway production of La Boheme. He's best known however for his bright and brash films Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge, and The Great Gatsby which was released earlier this year. On all three he has worked with Glasgow based composer Craig Armstrong who studied with Cornelius Cardew and began his career as in-house composer at the city's Tron Theatre. Baz and Craig explain to Tom Service how their creative relationship works and reflect on the role of music in Baz's films.